The broth is properly fatty, salty and umami-y. The egg is boiled to the proper jammy consistency. The corn, green onions and kimchi piled on top are respectable.

The noodles are the weakest link. They don’t have the chewiness that is so important to a great bowl of ramen. I suspect they sit around for too long.

Action shot: noodles and toppings being carefully dumped into the broth.

Another interesting touch: the broth is stored in a separate container. On one level, this is an ingenious setup for people who want to take ramen to go; but on another level, how many people are going to eat ramen hours after they order it? Cold ramen sounds blecky.

The multi-bowl setup also creates a slightly horrific amount of plastic waste.

It’s not perfect, but considering this is $8 ramen from an Albertsons, it’s kind of a revelation.

The ramen dumping process is now complete.

Side note: Albertsons is making serious moves in the battle for supermarket supremacy, basically fighting back against Whole Foods by building replica Whole Foods.

It may be unoriginal, but I think it’s working. The Albertsons on Broadway seems to be generating more student traffic than the Whole Foods down the road, in part because it has a nicer dining room.

Does the new Albertsons look strangely familiar?

Albertsons is also CRUSHING the sampling game. Oh me oh my are there a lot of samples.